Dissecting SMAC: Three Key Ways Cloud and Mobile Intersect

If you ask any technology marketer these days what are the hot areas, you are likely to get back the acronym SMAC – Social, Mobile, Analytics (i.e. Big Data) and Cloud. While these four are indeed hot topics; are they just a clever sounding collection of letters for what is en vogue, or do they really relate to each other.

Over the next three posts, I will take a look at how Mobile intertwines with other parts of SMAC. The first in the series will focus on Mobile and Cloud.

The first way these two areas intersect is in delivery of mobile management tools. Cloud-based SaaS deployments for Mobile Device Management are on the rise and likely to be the most common way companies manage their mobile devices. With the proliferation of mobile devices booming and employees bringing their own smartphones and tablets to work, it is often hard for I.T. to predict how many devices will be enrolled in MDM. SaaS-based MDM solutions offer great flexibility to scale quickly and incrementally to respond to this dynamic.

Cloud is the Perfect Middle Man for Mobile Apps

Mobile apps core functions rely heavily, if not exclusively, on cloud-based services. Content sharing sites like DropBox and collaboration tools like Chatter are driven by a cloud backend service. Mobile devices have limited storage and even more limited device-to-device based communications, so the cloud is the go-to go between.

Mobile Apps Increase Cloud Usage and Visibility

Having a powerful cloud management tool in your I.T. infrastructure is critical to ensuring a great mobile experience for your internal mobile apps. With users having even more ways to access a core internal service via mobile devices, any downtime is going to get noticed immediately.

Mobility is catching fire within the enterprise, but it does not operate in a vacuum or on the margins. SMAC may be a catchy buzzword (if an acronym can be a word), but it also serves as a guide to looking at how key initiatives interact among each other.

These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion.